I've had my second eyeball/turret camera fail due to water getting past the gaskets on the stock 'weathertight' connector. The latest was on a DS-2CD3345-I.
Once water gets into the connector, over time, the minerals in the water will form a bridge between the + an - terminals, creating heat which will melt both ends of the connection. Or, corrosion and rust will cause the delicate female spring-type pins to break. Either way, you end up with a perfectly functional camera, that has no viable way to connect to the network.
I carefully opened up the female end and documented the non-standard wire colors to a the proper color-coded pinout.
With the correct order, the trimmed pigtail can terminated with a standard male RJ45 end. Together with a real weathertight coupler, I was back in business.
Here's the the correct sequence for the colors. I've overlaid them on a standard RJ45 pinout:
That is: Orange / Yellow / Green / Grey / Purple / Blue / Brown / White
This is the coupler I used. The blue RJ45 I used is NOT rated for outdoor use, and the jacket cracked due to sunlight exposure. The cracks allowed water to get past the original seals. So the failure was self-inflicted. I will eventually replace this line with an outdoor rated cable. But for now, this shows how it works:
Once water gets into the connector, over time, the minerals in the water will form a bridge between the + an - terminals, creating heat which will melt both ends of the connection. Or, corrosion and rust will cause the delicate female spring-type pins to break. Either way, you end up with a perfectly functional camera, that has no viable way to connect to the network.
I carefully opened up the female end and documented the non-standard wire colors to a the proper color-coded pinout.
With the correct order, the trimmed pigtail can terminated with a standard male RJ45 end. Together with a real weathertight coupler, I was back in business.
Here's the the correct sequence for the colors. I've overlaid them on a standard RJ45 pinout:
That is: Orange / Yellow / Green / Grey / Purple / Blue / Brown / White
This is the coupler I used. The blue RJ45 I used is NOT rated for outdoor use, and the jacket cracked due to sunlight exposure. The cracks allowed water to get past the original seals. So the failure was self-inflicted. I will eventually replace this line with an outdoor rated cable. But for now, this shows how it works:
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